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<h1 class='title'>Introduction</h1>
<h1 class='subtitle'>The art of influence</h1>

<h1>From the age of deference to the age of influence</h1>

<p>Thirty years ago a revolution was started with a pair of grey socks.
The top executives of Procter &amp; Gamble walked onto the platform
at a company conference. As they took their seats there was a
shocked silence as everyone realised that one executive had broken
ranks with all the others. He was wearing dark grey socks, not
black socks. There was a suspicion that he was not just being
revolutionary, but also downright unpatriotic.</p>

<p>Thirty years later all the top executives of Skype gathered for a
conference in Estonia. Everyone, including the CEO, wore the
regulation uniform of jeans and T-shirt. Well, nearly everyone. I was
the speaker, and felt very overdressed in casual shirt and trousers.
Remarkably, attendees wore different coloured socks without a
revolution breaking out. Some were even wearing tights, not because
of a fetish for cross—dressing, but because they were women. Being a
white middle—aged male is no longer a precondition for success.
ln one generation, dress codes have changed out of all recognition,
and so have the rules of survival and success. In the old order there
was a clear hierarchy and the trappings of power were highly
visible. It was a caste system where the highest caste people had
reserved parking spaces, separate dining rooms and elevators, the
biggest desks and offices and the freshest flowers and deepest
carpets. It was an arrangement which was very acceptable to the
people at the top.</p>

<p>The world of hierarchy was also a world of command and control.
Workers worked and bosses bossed: workers had the hands and
bosses had the brains.Workers were expected to do what they were
told. At its best, it was a paternalistic world where firms and
governments looked after workers and voters. At worst, it was a
recipe for strikes, strife and conflict between the haves and the
have—nots.</p>

<p>The old world is passing away. Black socks are not mandatory and
respect for the hierarchy is evaporating. Public trust in politicians,
business leaders, journalists, union leaders and lawyers is at an all-
time low in opinion polls in both the USA and UK. The self-styled
elites may still believe in themselves, but no one else does. We are
more likely to trust a favourite band or a favourite brand than we
are to trust the men in suits.</p>

<img src="p004.gif" alt="Black socks are no longer part of company dress code, Jackson. Certain other items are, however."/>

<p>Even within organisations, old-style command and control is
breaking down. The world of compliance is giving way to the world
of commitment: you cannot order people to be committed. You
have to build commitment over time. And commitment, unlike
control, is a two-way street.</p>

<p>The old world of command and control enabled and imprisoned
people at the same time. Power and position used to march hand
in hand. Success meant slowly climbing the career ladder. Power
grew with position, but was limited by position. 
<aside>command and control enabled and imprisoned people</aside>
This was an
acceptable formula for patient people
who were happy to climb the career 
ladder for 30 years before gaining a 
position of power, prestige and 
influence. That is a formula which is 
deeply unattractive to anyone entering the workforce today. Thirty
years ago, at the start of the grey socks revolution, Freddie
Mercury of Queen sang ‘I want it all and I want it now.’ It was
revolutionary rock. The difference today is that people want more
and they want it faster.</p>

<p>Just as individuals want to break free from the limitations of
command and control, so organisations need people who can
move beyond command and control. Command and control
structures were typically functional silos. Today, organisations are
flatter and more fragmented. It is easy to hide but hard to shine in
such complex organisations. It is even harder to make things
happen. In flat organisations you cannot boss people around so
much because you may not control them: they work in different
functions or even in different companies. Instead of using
authority, you have to use influence: creating coalitions, building
willing followers, picking the right agenda, fostering networks of
trust and support. This is not just a different skill set from
command and control, it is a different mindset.</p>

<p>The age of influence opens up huge opportunities. It removes our
dependence on hierarchy. By building our own networks and
platforms for success we can make things happen, fulfil our
dreams and achieve our ambitions, We can control our own fate.
To do this, we have to learn a whole new aft; the art of influence.</p>

<h1>The invisible hand of influence</h1>

<p>Where the trappings of power are visible, the skills of influence are
invisible.We can see that some people have influence. It is much less
obvious how they gained and use influence. The signs of an influen-
tial person are plain to see: they have a web of willing allies; they
seem to be in the right place at the right time; they turn crises into
conflict and turn opposition into support. Lack of control does not
lead to lack of progress: their network enables them to achieve much
more than the lone hero trying to do it all alone.</p>

<p>At first, influence appears to be one of those mysterious qualities
like charisma or inspiration: you either have it or you do not.
Fortunately, this is not the case. Effective influencers display some
consistent skills and behaviours which anyone can learn. Behind
those behaviours is a mindset: that is the invisible key to influence.
We cannot see what people think. But if we understand how they
think, then we can start to use the same way of thinking and
achieve the same results. The influencer’s way of thinking differs
from normal thinking in many ways, for instance:</p>

<ul>
<li>Prefers trust to friendship and allies to friends</li>
<li>Sees the world through others’ eyes, not just their own</li>
<li>Offers measured generosity: neither selfishness nor complete
selflessness.</li>
<li>Has ambition, but not just for themself.</li>
<li>Starts at the end and focuses on outcomes: not first things first</li>
<li>Can be ruthless and unreasonable, but not unfair.</li>
</ul>

<p>In total, <i>How to Influence</i> maps out over 60 skills, principles and
behaviours which influential people consistently use. Each skill is
based on observed practice. This is not a theory of influence: it is
practice as it happens in the real world. Because the book
is practice-based, each skill is supported by real examples, stories or
cases. The book is not a course: it does not attempt to provide a
detailed recipe for deploying each skill. Instead, it maps out the
main principles which influencers follow. In reality, each influencer
has their own style: they focus on some skills more than others and
use them in different ways. Armed with the principles of influence
you can decide which skills to develop and how to deploy them.You
do not have to become someone else to be an effective influencer.
You simply build on the best of who you already are.</p>

<h1>Influence versus persuasion</h1>

<p>Influence is not the same as persuasion. Influencers play for much
higher stakes than persuaders. Persuasion is the art of convincing
someone to buy something or do something once.There are plenty
of tricks and tactics for achieving a one-off success. But such
success is not just short-lived: it can destroy longer—term influence.
If` I have been persuaded to do something once, against my better
judgement, then I will be twice as careful and resistant next time
the persuader comes calling with another idea. Successful persua-
sion can work once and prevent further success.</p>

<p>Influencers do not want a one—off success. They want to build
commitment which lasts. This means that influencers think and
act very differently from persuaders. Persuaders start and finish
with their own needs.They want to sell their product or plant their
idea in another person’s head. Communication tends to be one-
way: the persuader does most of the talking as they extol the
virtues of the product or idea they want to push.</p>

<p>Influencers still have goals to achieve, but think differently about
how to get there. They see the world through other people’s eyes,
and adapt their message and behaviour accordingly. The ideal
outcome is not simply to persuade someone: it is to build an
alliance of mutual trust and respect. Achieving this is a huge
investment of time, effort and skill. But it is an investment which
yields rich dividends over a long period.</p>

<h1>The journey towards influence</h1>

<p><aside>The things we really need to know and learn to succeed are not taught</aside>
The things we really need to know and
learn to succeed are not taught. We have
to pick them up from experience. But
the random walk of experience can be
very painful: it is full of dead ends,
booby traps, cliff edges and endless
swamps. <i>How to Influence</i> puts some structure into that random
walk. The book is based on 30 years of research, observation and
work with nearly 100 of the best, and one or two of the worst,
organisations on our planet. They have covered every main industry
sector as well as public and voluntary sectors in Asia, Europe and
North America. 
<aside>the random walk of experience can be very painful</aside>
The good news is that influence is a universal skill
with consistent behaviour patterns
which anyone can learn. We can take
some of the randomness out of our
random walk of experience: that means
we-can learn faster and progress faster.</p>

<p>Inevitably, influence and power can be put to good use or bad use.
I hope you use influence to be a force for good, but this book does
not try to be moral or immoral. Its only purpose is to show how
you can acquire power and influence: how you use it is up to you
and your conscience.</p>

<p>This book not only shows you how to build influence: it also helps
you resist unwelcome attempts to influence or manipulate you.
Once you have learned the patterns and principles of influence,
you are better equipped to spot them and resist them. The best
influencing techniques are largely invisible: that is what makes
them so effective and dangerous. Unless you know what you are
looking for, you will not even realise you are being influenced.
Once you recognise the pattern, you can make a decision to resist
or cooperate: at least you will have a choice which many of your
colleagues will not even realise that they have.</p>

<p>As you embark on your journey of influence, you will make a
pleasant discovery: influence is self—reinforcing. The more influen-
tial you become, the easier it is to acquire even more influence.
More and more people will want to work with you as you build up
your influence. Influence enables you
to do more, fix things, strike deals and 
make things happen. Everyone will 
want some of your pixie dust, and will 
be more than happy to reciprocate in any way they can. The
challenge is to move from being an outsider to being the centre of
the network. Life on the outside of the network is lonely,
frustrating and hard work. <i>How to Influence</i> shows how you can
make the journey from outsider to the centre of influence.</p>

<p>With over 60 influencing skills and principles to absorb, no one
can hope to start at page one and finish at the end as the complete
influencer. Instead, use this book as a reference guide. Focus on
one skill at a time. Experiment and practise. Find your own style of
deploying these skills. Influencing is not about working from some
mechanical script. It is about using a range of skills to build
voluntary and lasting support from the people you influence.
Apply the skills in ways that are natural to you.
The best influencers make their skills invisible. No one realises
they are being persuaded or influenced. They simply find it very
easy to support and work with the influencer, without being sure
why they find it so easy. When you can make the invisible hand of
influence work for you, then you have truly mastered the art. How
to Influence makes those invisible skills visible for you.</p>

<h1 class='title'>Part One</h1>
<h1 class='subtitle'>The art of influence:
acquiring influence
and authority</h1>

<h1 class='title'>Chapter 1</h1>
<h1 class='subtitle'>Build your
  platform</h1>

<p>I was Mr Zest and in the next cubicle sat Mr Fairy. I was respon-
I sible for Zest (a toilet soap). He was responsible for a
competitor: Fairy toilet soap. On balance, I preferred to be Mr
Zcst rather than Mr Fairy. Suddenly, the CEO appeared by our
cubicles: he was on walkabout. He asked me how things were
going. I muttered something about the weather. He moved on to
Mr Fairy and asked the same question.</p>

<p>‘Jurgen,’ said Mr Fairy, ‘I would really like your advice on this new
promotion we are developing...’ The CEO was delighted. This
was his chance to show that he had lost none of his marketing
skills. Fifteen minutes later jurgen left with a big smile on his face:
hc had just proven he still had the right stuff. Mr Fairy also had a
hig smile. He had just got the CEO’s support for a controversial
new promotion, and had made his name with the big boss. Word
quickly spread that the Fairy project was now the CEO’s pet
project. One week later, all the staff departments had waved
l·`uiry’s promotion through. One month later, I was still battling
with them to gain approval for my far more modest promotion.</p>

<p>In that short exchange with the CEO, Mr Fairy had demonstrated
several key influencing techniques:</p>

<ul>
<li>He seized the moment</li>
<li>He sold his idea by asking for advice: he listened rather than
pitching</li>
<li>He had acted as a partner to the boss, treating him as a human
not just a boss.</li>
<li>He borrowed the authority of the CEO.</li>
</ul>

<p>The easiest way for people without influence (like Mr Zest and Mr
Fairy) to gain influence is to borrow it from someone else. The
power of endorsement from the right people is huge. Advertisers
understand this well. Makers of sportswear, like Nike and Adidas,
relentlessly pursue endorsements from the top sports stars of the
day in each sport. As consumers we know that the stars have been
bought: they may or may not prefer Adidas or Nike. But still the
endorsement works.We like to believe that if we have the same gear
as the champions we can play as well as them, or at least better
than we normally do. In truth, the clubs which Tiger Woods uses
may need more control than an amateur can achieve: we might be
better off with clubs which are more forgiving of error. But such is
the power of endorsement, we will pay a premium for the gear
which our sporting heroes advocate.</p>

<p>Influential people do not have to rely on office and status for power.
They create their own form of informal power. They all have a
platform which they cultivate carefully. These platforms represent a
short cut to power and influence. Instead of waiting and hoping for
promotion, these platforms offer influence and power in a hurry.</p>

<p>There are four main types of platform for the influential manager:</p>

<ul>
<li>Influential people: borrow credibility and influence</li>
<li>Influential places: go where the power is</li>
<li>Claims to fame: build your personal platform</li>
<li>Agenda control: have a plan.</li>
</ul>

<p>It is possible to grow all four sorts of influence at the same time.
Influential people and places are about borrowing a platform for
influence. They are short cuts to influence. At some point
managers also need to acquire influence in their own right. Agenda
control and having a claim to fame give managers a personal
platform of influence.</p>

<h1>Influential people: borrow credibility and
influence</h1>

<p>We can borrow money for the short term, perhaps on our credit
cards, and we can borrow money for the long term, perhaps on our
mortgage. In the same way, managers can borrow influence in
both the short term and the long term. In the short term,
borrowed influence comes from the power of endorsements. Long-
term borrowing of power comes from patronage: making alliances
with the right power barons. Both sorts of borrowing increase the
influence which a manager can exert in an organisation.</p>

<h2>Short-term borrowing: the power of endorsement</h2>

<p>The power of endorsement became clear when I found myself at
Lloyds, the reinsurance underwriting business. I had imagined it
would be a highly sophisticated and complicated business
underwriting the risk of oil rigs, supertankers, aircraft and football
sturs’ feet. I was wrong. The broker went round various old-
fashioned desks where underwriters sat. The broker pulled out a
picce of paper with a $3 billion risk on a North Sea oil rig. The
underwriter looked at the piece of paper. ‘OK,’ he said after about
tcn seconds, ‘If it’s good enough for Charlie, Tom and Jamie its
good enough for me. I’ll take a $50 million line.’ He had just
committed his firm to $50 million of risk on the basis that people
he trusted had also taken up some of the risk. Some time later
Lloyds was submerged in bad risks and nearly went bust: assessing
risk on the basis of which of your friends have signed up was
perhaps not smart enough.</p>

<p>Effective managers learn to use the power of endorsement to their
advantage. Business plans, promotions and new ideas are not
judged just on the basis of the idea. They are also judged on the
quality of the people behind the idea. In the same way, venture
capitalists do not judge a new business idea just on the basis of a
business plan. They back the manager as much as they back the
plan. There is good reason for this. A good team will improve an
average plan and will make molehills out of mountains. The ‘B’
team will struggle to live up to its promises. Until you have an
established track record, you will be regarded as the ‘B’ team: you
will be judged on performance, not on potential.</p>

<h2>Long-term borrowing of power: the power of patronage</h2>

<p>When Kensington Palace was first built it gave great amusement to
the peasants of Kensington. They would gather outside and watch
the high-and-mighty lords and ladies arriving in their extravagant
court dress. It was like watching film stars arriving for a premiere,
but without the respect and adulation which film stars receive. For
their part, the lords and ladies would carry nosegays of perfumed
herbs to protect their very refined noses from the smells of the
great unwashed: in practice, however, even the lords and ladies
stank. They would change their outer clothes several times a day,
and they would change their underclothes three or four times a
year. Everyone wanted to petition the king, but access was limited.
Some people would wait for days in one of the many waiting
rooms and antechambers. The smarter petitioners would seek the
patronage of aristocrats who already had access to the king. Power
and money flowed from the king: the closer you were, the more
influence, power and prestige you had.</p>

<p>The kings of the corporate world are CEOs. Hopefully, they
change their underwear more often than the kings of the past. But
still power and patronage flows from the CEO, and still the power
barons gather round their corporate king, jostling for position and
for favours. Those who do well can, like Cardinal Richelieu under
Louis XIII, find fame and fortune. Those who displease the king
suffer corporate execution: they are fired.</p>

<p>The principles of patronage apply as much in the corporate world
as they did in the era of powerful kings and queens. Access to the
top is desirable, but for many managers access to a power baron is
a very useful substitute. Picking the right power baron is not easy.
The right power baron has two qualities:</p>

<ul>
<li>Success: they will have or acquire significant patronage in terms
of bonuses, pay, promotions, projects and assignments.</li>
<li>Loyalty: they will stick with and reward the team that helped
them succeed.</li>
</ul>

<p>Patronage is a two—way street: the patron always wants something
in return for what they give. The stronger the give and take, the
deeper the loyalty and commitment is likely to be. Michael
demonstrated how to be a power baron when he started a new
service line offering post-merger integration support to clients.
First, he was successful: he built the business rapidly. That gave
him a pot of bonus money and influence over promotions which
made him a highly attractive power. Second, he was fiercely loyal
to his team and demanded 100 per cent loyalty in return. His team
became like a firm within a firm. Outsiders were not welcome and
it became very hard to judge who was doing what inside the team.
Only Michael really knew what was going on. He used success and
knowledge to his advantage. At promotion time he backed his
three candidates vigorously. Michael essentially bullied the
promotion commission into accepting his picks: the only perform-
ance benchmark the commission had came from Michael, who
was clearly successful. Success and loyalty breeds dedicated
followers. They also attract some of the best and most ambitious
talent into his team.</p>

<p>Michael expects his pound of flesh in return. Tota1 loyalty and total
commitment are required. His team is like a cult: it has its own
values, beliefs and ways of doing things. They are not just loyal to
Michael: they are loyal to each other.</p>

<p>If surrendering your ego, life and career to that of an emerging
power baron is a step too far, there are other weaker but still
effective forms of patronage which managers can cultivate. A good
mentoring relationship can be highly productive for both sides: as
with all forms of patronage it should be a win—win relationship.
This is what each side should expect:</p>

<ul>
<li><i>Mentee</i>: gains access to a senior executive. Personal advice and
support helps, an insight into how senior managers think is
invaluable preparation for dealing with other senior managers;
the mentor should also alert the mentee to emerging career
opportunities and risks, and should be able to help break the
occasional political logjam. The mentor may not give much
time, but the value of each intervention can be huge.</li>
<li><i>Mentor</i>: the mentor values having eyes and ears across the
organisation.Top executives distrust formal papers which are
submitted to them: such papers give a warped version of the
truth.They value word of mouth about what is really going on
across the organisation. They also need some ‘go-to’ people for
discretionary help and support on building a new idea, making
a speech or preparing a meeting. Finally, most mentors are
quietly flattered that emerging talent is seeking them out and
values their views.</li>
</ul>

<p>The main block to forming such relationships is normally in the
mentee’s head. We look at the big bosses and think of them as big
bosses. We let the hierarchy get in the way of the relationship. As
we shall see in the chapter on the Partnership Principle, the trick is
to remember that even the biggest boss is still a human being,
despite appearances to the contrary. If we treat them as humans
and partners, not just as bosses, we are more likely to establish a
productive relationship with them.</p>

<h1>Influential places: go where the power is</h1>

<p>Willy Sutton, the famous American bank robber, was asked why he
robbed banks. ‘Because that is where the money is,’ he replied. If
you want money, go where the money is. If you want fame, go
where the fame is. If you want power, go where the power is.
Some people are attracted to power like moths to a light.
Inevitably, some get burned in the process.The brightest source of
power and influence is the organisation you represent. A few
people become influential in their own right: pop stars, actors,
artists and sportspeople can all achieve influence on their own.
Some, like Bono, have presidents and prime ministers jostling to
get their photo taken with them. Unless we are confident of
becoming a global megastar in our own right, we need a short cut
to achieving position and influence. As soon as we represent an
organisation, we inherit the influence and credibility of that
organisation. If we join the right part of` that organisation, we
multiply our influence even further.</p>

<h2>Choice of employer</h2>

<p>When businesspeople meet in Japan, the first thing they do is
exchange meishi, business cards. To the Western eye, meishi states
someone’s name, employer and position. In practice, meishi are
guides to who should have bowed first, longest and deepest upon
introduction. 
<aside>meishi are guides to
who should have
bowed first, longest
and deepest</aside>
The person’s title and
company will indicate their status:
Toyota is clearly more prestigious than 
one of its suppliers or the local corner
shop. As the meishi are read 
exchanged, vigorous bowing ensues to 
establish the right social order. Bowing may seem difficult to
Westerners, but try explaining how to shake hands to a Japanese
businessman (when, how do you know it is time, how do you show
you want to shake hands, how hard, how long?).</p>

<p>The tale of the meishi shows how far we depend on our employer
for our status and influence. If you work for McKinsey, executives
are likely to answer the phone when you call. If you are calling
from Fred’s Consulting Emporium, you will find it much harder to
contact the CEO you wished to talk to. Every time we call, every
time we state our employer’s name, we borrow all their credibility:
we inherit the influence and power built up over years by the firm.
To see the power of the employer, watch what happens to senior
executives when they leave the big firms they used to run. The
masters of the universe become outcasts: no one takes their call.
Even CEOs become shadows of themselves once they step down.</p>

<p>Choosing the right firm is fundamental to influence. Choosing a
large and prestigious firm is a short cut to personal prestige and
influence in the marketplace. This is reflected in the recruiting
season at undergraduate and graduate levels: the top employers in
consulting, law and banking are inundated with applications from
the best and the brightest. They are like the moths attracted to the
light. They all fervently believe that they are better and brighter
than the rest ofthe best and the brightest. Slowly, they discover the
relentless logic of the career pyramid. If there is one partner for
every 25 employees, then even with 10 per cent growth a year, just
one in ten of the graduates will make partner inside ten years. Nine
out of ten will be disappointed, or will come up with elaborate
reasons around how they had always really wanted to start a vegan
farm in Vermont. That puts the challenge of influence and power
into perspective. If you join the large and prestigious firm, you will
need to do more than be bright and work hard to succeed. The art
of influence becomes essential: to stand out, to make things
happen, to have a claim to fame and to find the right assignments
and opportunities in order to succeed.</p>

<img src="p023.gif" alt="I don't know how to put this kindly, Michael, but with business cards sometimes less is more"/>

<p><aside>not all nations are
equal in a global firm</aside>
Global firms would appear at first
glance to give the widest range of
opportun1t1es. To some extent, they do.
But global firms are rarely global: not all nations are equal in a
global firm. In global firms, the influential place is the home
nation. French, Japanese, American, Indian and Chinese firms
may hire plenty of foreigners. Some may be promoted to senior
positions. But the overwhelming weight of power is with the home-
country nationals.This is routinely reflected in the choice of CEO,
who normally comes from the home nation. Exceptions, such as
Carlos Ghosn (Nissan) or Howard Stringer (Sony) are notable
precisely because they are exceptions to the rule.</p>

<p>Home-country bias also causes serious problems lower in the
organisation. Global teams rarely work as well as they are meant
to. Part of the problem is about power. As one Welsh worker with a
French company explained: ‘I never see the team leader: all the
decisions seem to be made over there. I try double guessing what is
expected but it is a waste of time. They don’t trust us and we don’t
trust them.’ The place of power is clear: it is nearly always with the
home nation. Choose your employer well.</p>

<h2>Choice of function</h2>

<p>As this book went to press, Procter &amp; Gamble announced that
Robert McDonald was taking over from A.G. Lafley as the new
CEO. I did not have to guess what his background was. I knew
what his background had to be. The only source of power and
influence at P&amp;G is marketing and brand management. He had to
have come from that route. A quick check showed that this was the
case. His marketing career had taken him from North America to
Japan and Asia, giving him the global outlook which P&amp;G wanted
from the new CEO. The only way to the top at P&amp;G is through
brand management. Even at the lowest levels of the firm, this
truism is keenly felt: it is the brand groups which drive most of the
critical business decisions across the firm on a day-to—day basis.
Manufacturing, sales, R&amp;D, finance, logistics and HR all have vital
roles to play. But it is clear that the brands are in the driving seat. If
you want power and influence at P&amp;G, joining brand management
is a smart move.True to the rule of home country bias, both A.G.
Lafley and McDonald are US citizens: P&amp;G may be global, but it
is clear where power lies: in America and in marketing.</p>

<p>In many other firms, the choice of function is not so clear—cut. In
professional service firms, the nature of power and influence is
constantly shifting in response to the market: one industry group
or service line will grow rapidly and another shrink. The managers
in the growing business all look like heroes; the managers in the
shrinking businesses get to wear the dunce’s cap. Power follows the
money and money follows the client: if cash is king then the client
is the emperor. The ideal place to be is in a small business unit
which is about to grow rapidly. This is much easier said than done.</p>

<h1>Claims to fame</h1>

<p>Old Uncle Harry had a good war. As he recounted his various tales
of the war it became clear that he had, single—handed, defeated
Nazism (with perhaps a little help from the Russians, Americans
and that nice Mr Churchill).The truth was a little more mundane:
he had been in the supply corps and never got too close to the
action. But that was never going to stop him telling a good tale or
two. Harry’s claim to fame lasted to his dying day and had served
him very well by impressing prospective employers and girlfriends.</p>

<p>A good claim to fame can make a person or an organisation. Tom
Peters is a superstar on the corporate speaking circuit. His original
cluim to fame was to have been a co-author of In Search Of
Iirccllence. That is now a widely unread book which languishes in
the lower reaches of the Amazon rankings. Even though the
original platform is past its sell-by date, it has served its purpose: it
has given Tom Peters the chance to build his speaking career.
Similarly, Microsoft benefits from a success platform which has
now disappeared. When IBM entered the PC market it was the
dominant force in mainframes. It was expected to set the standard
in the PC market as well. It happened to choose a start—up run by
Iiill Gates to provide the operating system for its computer. 
<aside>The mystery of a good platform is that it works even after it has disappeared</aside>
The
result is that Microsoft became the de 
facto standard operating system for all 
PCs. IBM exited the PC business in
2005 when it completed the sale of its
PC division to Lenovo. Microsoft’s
original platform disappeared, but it 
still retains a 90 per cent share of the market for desktop operating
systems. The mystery of a good platform is that it works even after
it has disappeared.</p>

<p>Most of us are not going to publish a best-seller, become a
corporate speaking superstar or grab 90 per cent of a global
market. But we still need our claim to fame if we are to make our
mark. The need for a claim to fame is becoming more important as
organisations become flatter and more confusing. One life
insurance company manages to have five dimensions to its matrix:
products, channels, geographies, customers and functions. Most
human beings struggle with more than three dimensions. 
<aside>In complex firms it is easy to hide and even harder to shine</aside>
Even
actuaries struggle with five. In complex
firms it is easy to hide and even harder
to shine. No one knows who was really
responsible for what. This matters. If
you are just another grey face in
cubicle land, it is hard to have influence or power. If you have a
claim to fame, you get noticed more and you find more opportun-
ities come your way.</p>

<p>The power of the claim to fame became clear at promotion time. I
was tasked with running the promotions commission. There were
30 promotions to hand out among 50 nominees: officially we were
told there was no limit. Never trust company propaganda. This
meant that there were going to be 20 desperately disappointed
people. Firing people is relatively easy: by the time it gets to that
stage, both sides recognise the inevitable. Disappointing good
people who have worked hard and achieved much is far worse. We
sifted through the promotions packages. They were all eulogies of
unstinting praise to the extraordinary success of each individual.
They were, in other words, a pack of lies. Each pack was an
attempt by a boss to fulfil a promise made to a team member:
‘work hard and I will get you promoted.’</p>

<p>In the end, we had to ask ourselves three questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Who is sponsoring the candidate? (are the sponsors credible
and trustworthy?)</li>
<li>What is our personal experience of the candidate?</li>
<li>What is the candidate’s claim to fame?</li>
</ul>

<p>The sponsorship question leads back to the influential people
principle: you need a powerful sponsor. The personal experience
question leads back to the influential places question: it is much
easier to make a positive impression if you work in proximity to the
people who will decide your career. It is also possible to make a
negative impression more easily. The final question was the
decider: what was the candidate’s claim to fame?</p>

<p>A claim to fame could be more or less anything. One person had
Iiccome the company expert in the arcane art of building financial
business cases for IT projects in UK life assurance companies. It
was arcane, but valuable. He got promoted. Another person was
notable because she always volunteered to help out with discre-
tionary effort, and she always delivered. She got promoted.
Another had been sent to Cumbria on a small, messy project and
had turned it into a large and successful project. He got promoted.</p>

<p>The claim to fame principle can send you into voluntary exile. If it
in hard to stand out in cubicle land, it is easier to stand out in the
outposts of empire where you have the chance to run your own
show. You can be a big fish in a small pond and learn how big fish
lichave. Running your own show means that failure or success is
very clearly owned by you. If you decide to do this, there are two
golden rules to remember:</p>

<ul>
<li>Never believe any promises about what will happen on your
return from exile</li>
<li>Manage your reputation at head office vigorously.</li>
</ul>

<p>These are lessons I learned the hard way when I decided to take
voluntary exile and run a business in ]apan. When I arrived I found
a business with no customers, no sales, no prospect of any sales
and a lot of bills to pay. My one—way ticket to ]apan appeared to be
a one-way ticket to career hospice. Looked at more positively, if I
did anything it would be an improvement on the mess I inherited.
So I bought a series of round-the-world tickets in both directions
and started to manage expectations in our two head offices, based
inconveniently in New Jersey and Paris. The key was to make sure
that our story about japan was the accepted story: we quickly
constructed a story about investment. We could either invest in
Japan for three years and build a business which fitted with the rest
of the world, or we could close down and exit, or we could throw
the dice and buy another company at huge cost. If we had let the
finance people construct the story, it would have been very
unpleasant. By striking early, setting the tone of the debate and
then finding as many excuses as possible to go back to the seat of
power, we were able to survive.</p>

<p>Once you are in an outpost, nobody really knows or understands
how well you are doing. They see the numbers and they pass
judgement on that basis. That is why it is essential to manage the
story behind the numbers: show that what you are doing is a real
achievement and a step-change from the past.</p>

<p>The second lesson is never believe any promises about what will
happen on your return from exile. After three years, the firm will
probably have been reorganised three times and all your old line
managers will be in different posts.Your new line managers will see
no great need to keep old promises made by someone else to
someone they do not know. And there will probably be no
openings available anyway. The only antidote to this is to keep in
close contact with head office during your exile. Manage the
politics and keep your radar tuned in to new positions opening up.</p>

<p>If you survive all this, you will have a real claim to fame.You will have
shown you can run something and you will stand out from all the
other functionaries who analyse, report, and associate themselves
with success while distancing themselves from problems. As your
claims to fame build, you create a unbridgeable gap versus more
cautious colleagues who have never taken the risk and never led.</p>

<h1>Agenda control</h1>

<p>People are busy. We seem more stressed and stretched than ever.
livery day there are more challenges and crises to deal with. We
need to respond to customers, competitors, colleagues and top
tttimagers. The last thing we all need is the chance to do more: we
already have too much to do, thank you very much.</p>

<p>The problem of stress and overwork is a wonderful opportunity for
infuential managers. There are countless opportunities to quietly
take control: most people will be delighted that you are taking a
problem away from them. They are not just giving you a problem;
they are giving you an opportunity to build your influence.
Controlling the agenda is a powerful platform from which you can
grow your influence.</p>

<p>Taking control gracefully, as opposed to having a power battle, is
based on three requirements:</p>

<ul>
<li>Find the right opportunity</li>
<li>Strike early</li>
<li>Move centre stage.</li>
</ul>

<p>I discovered all three of these rules by accident as a young researcher
in the British Parliament. My boss was an MP and responsible for
economic and industrial policy. He decided the party needed a new
economic and industrial policy. This was not strictly true. The party
slid not need a new policy: he needed a new policy to show that he
was doing something. So he assembled a group of very important
people to advise him. They all sat round a table and pontificated for
out hour or two. I was gently ignored: I was far too young to be
capable of thinking or speaking. Towards the end of the meeting, I
made the only contribution I could: I 
offered to summarise the meeting for 
them. They were delighted: that was an administrative
chore which was beneath 
their dignity. 
<aside>a well-chosen administrative chore can be an administrative coup</aside>
I did not realise it at the 
time, but a well-chosen administrative
chore can be an administrative coup.</p>

<p>Back at the office, I looked at my scrawled notes. All the grand
people had said grand things, but there was no conclusion or
direction to any of the comments. So I wrote what I thought would
be a good industrial and economic policy, taking care to include
one or two comments from each grandee. I then circulated the
summary, drawing each recipient’s attention to their contribution.
They were delighted to see that one of their ideas was getting into
the policy document. A couple of revisions later, the policy was
agreed. It was, by accident, my policy. Two years later, the whole
party imploded: I like to think that it was not my fault.</p>

<p>Let’s call up the slow-motion replay and see what happened:</p>

<ul>
<li><i>Find the right opportunity.</i> Working on the party’s economic and
industrial policy was better than responding to constituents’
housing worries.</li>
<li><i>Strike early.</i> There are always moments of uncertainty when it
is not clear who is going to do what. There is a void waiting to
be filled, so fill it. Someone needs to step up and volunteer to
solve the problem, lead the analysis, summarise the meeting or
take the next steps. The first person to raise their hands,
cough, catch the eye of the chairperson or even raise an
eyebrow is the person who volunteers. Normally, everyone else
will be delighted that they have dodged extra work.</li>
<li><i>Move centre stage.</i> Offering to facilitate, take notes or
summarise sounds tedious and a bit like hard work. It is. But it
also puts you centre stage. The facilitator controls the
direction of the conversation; the summariser controls the
output of the meeting. Anyone can do this at any level.</li>
</ul>

<p>Taking notes is not the only way to take control. There are always
tasks which no one else wants to do, they are too busy and the task
is too difficult. That is the void waiting to be filled. Most times, it
makes sense to leave the void well alone. If it is a low-value task,
you simply add to an overcrowded agenda. If it is an opportunity
which gives you the chance to shine, strike early and volunteer.
Two examples will make the point:</p>

<p>We were setting up a charity. There was a huge amount to do:
fundraising, finding staff, building our operations. Fortunately, a
kind businessman volunteered to do the tedious work of liaising
with lawyers and charity commission to set up the legal structure.
It was bureaucracy we were pleased to delegate. And at that
moment we lost control of the charity. He used the legal process to
install himself as chairman and his friends as trustees. Once
installed, there was no way of removing them. They were useless
und nearly killed the charity. He filled the void and took control.</p>

<p>The second example took place in a dire company meeting, the
wort which all executives have to endure from time to time.
Budgets for the following year were being agreed. Head office
stuff were like rottweilers. They attacked every increase in
spending from the operating units. Finally, they got up and
nnnounced an increase of 40 per cent, or $35 million in their own
head office budget. There was stunned silence. At the first
objection, the COO smiled thinly. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘if anyone thinks
we can spend less, they are welcome to come to head office and
prove it to us.’ No one was foolish enough to take on the power
und might of head office: that is a death wish. Well, nearly no one.
There is always one person with more courage than sense. I raised
my hand. The void had been filled and I had volunteered for the
death wish project of cutting head office budget and making
enemies of every power broker in the company. Be careful which
opportunities you take on.</p>

<h1>Summary</h1>

<p>There are four main ways of building a power base for the influen-
tial manager:</p>

<ul>
<li>Borrow power: influential people</li>
<li>Go where the power is: influential places</li>
<li>Build your reputation: have a claim to fame</li>
<li>Control the agenda: have a plan.</li>
</ul>

<p>All of this amounts to a BFO: a blinding flash of the obvious. Like
much of the art of management it is not a deep secret known only
to a few wizards of the art. It is common sense: common sense is in
short supply in many workplaces. If you can apply these principles
you will already start to acquire influence. 
<aside>common sense is in short supply in many workplaces</aside>
As ever, applying
common sense in the messy, ambiguous, shifting world of manage-
ment is not easy. This chapter has
described what the influential manager
needs to build influence. The following
chapters will show how to build these
power bases and how to build
influence. But first, we will explore further the principle of influen-
tial people: knowing who to influence and how to weave your web
of influence across your organisation.</p>

<h1 class="title">Chapter 2</h1>
<h1 class="subtitle">Create a
network</h1>

<p>The first day at work, like the first day at school, can be
traumatic. You want to make a good impression, but you
don’t know anyone and have no idea what to do or how
things work. The trauma remains even if you join at a senior level,
as I found out when I joined a large firm as a partner.</p>

<p>I arrived on my first day. No one knew me: even the receptionist
looked at me blankly and said that no one of my name worked
there. Good start. I then enjoyed the ritual humiliation of having
to be told how the phones and computers worked: I could not even
make a phone call or send an email without help. So much for
being a master of the universe. I was shown into a big office. My
office. I sat in the big chair behind the big desk. Reality set in fast:
with no clients and no team I had no prospects. I needed to make
things happen. But even if I could get the phone to work: who to
call and what to call them about?</p>

<p>It was a stark contrast to my previous place: I knew everyone and
had a stable of clients. If I needed to make anything happen, I
knew who to call for what. I also knew who to avoid. I had two
networks of influence in my old organisation. Internally I had a
network of alliances and mutual obligations which I could call on.
Externally, I had a network of clients who provided revenues and
work. Suddenly, I was without all the networks that made success
possible. I was the proverbial fish out of water. 
<aside>when headhunters promise greener pastures elsewhere, remember, it's greenest where it rains the most</aside>
I discovered too late
the advice about all headhunters: when
headhunters promise greener pastures
elsewhere, remember, it’s greenest
where it rains the most.</p>

<p>To succeed, I needed to start weaving
new webs of influence inside and
outside the firm. This is the challenge
all managers face. Influence comes
from having a network of alliances and trust: people you can call
on to make things happen. Networks of influence enjoy the
benefits and challenges of the network effect: strong networks get
stronger, weak networks stay weak.</p>

<p>The network effect is pervasive in business. A telephone system
with just one line has limited use: the more people join the
network, the more attractive it becomes. Many web businesses
enjoy the benefits of the network effect. eBay is attractive to sellers
because it attracts so many buyers and vice versa: the more
customers it has, the more attractive it becomes. It has liquidity
and depth which other online markets cannot match. In financial
markets, the largest stock exchanges and other financial markets
enjoy the same network advantages of scale and liquidity for
buyers and sellers.</p>

<p>In the management world, the network effect drives influence. A
manager with no network has no influence; worse, he is unlikely to
attract any alliances or support. He has
little to offer in return. A well-
networked manager attracts talent and
attracts more alliances. The well-
networked manager can do deals,
return favours, provide access to key people, work the politics and
make things happen. The strong network attracts and the weak
network repels.</p>

<p>The purpose of this chapter is only to show what sort of network
managers need. There is no point in building up a huge quick-dial
list on your mobile phone if you have the wrong people on the list.
A large network is not much use if it is the wrong network. The key
is to target the right people. This chapter answers the question:
‘who are the right people for my network?’ Subsequent chapters
will show how you can attract these people into your web and
make them willing allies.</p>

<p>It takes time and effort to build this power web, so it pays to build
thc right web with the right people. If the spider weaves its web in
the wrong place, it will be a very hungry spider.</p>

<h1>Weaving the right web of influence</h1>

<p>Essentially, there are four sorts of people the influencer needs in a
power web.</p>

<ul>
<li><i>Power barons:</i> these are typically more senior people who have
access to money and resources. They are also essential for
helping with the politics. They can guide you to the right
projects; they can help you get started with the right mandate,
right support and right budget, they can help unblock
resistance when it inevitably occurs.</li>
<li><i>Technocrats</i>. These people often live in staff functions. They
cannot make things happen, but they can stop things
happening. Technocrats have the power of ‘no’. Even worse,
they have the power to comment and advise. They can analyse
and advise your project to death. Their natural habitat is in
places like Finance, HR, Legal, Health and Safety and even
the brand police.</li>
<li><i>Resources</i>: these are team members who will work directly for
you. Typically you will be offered a mix of the new and the
struggling, on the basis that they are the only people available.
The ‘B’ team is a recipe for long nights, high anxiety and even
higher stress. Influential managers will use their skills and
networks to identify, woo and recruit the ‘A’ team.</li>
<li><i>Trading partners</i>. Traders are typically at a similar level to you.
They exist in an ambiguous world of cooperation and
competition with each other. They have to collaborate to make
things happen, but they are competing for the same pot of
budgets, management support, promotions and bonuses.</li>
</ul>


<p>It takes time to find out where real power lies. Obviously, A CEO
is powerful. But in day-to—day life other people may be more
important for making things happen. For instance, Sarah worked
at an advertising agency. It was full of people with loud shirts, loud
mouths and huge egos. The Account Managers were all intense
rivals. The greatest rivalry was for the support of the creative
department. There was never enough creative talent to go round.
The way to get work done was to get one of the big power barons
to shout and scream long enough that your work would go to the
front of the queue. Every power baron played the same game. It
was like a chimpanzees’ tea party, but with less order. To
rationalise the process, the agency created the job of scheduler.
The scheduler received work requests from all the big—ego account
managers and worked out which creative teams should do the
work when. Naturally, all the big egos stopped shouting at
the creative teams (which was good) and started shouting at the
scheduler instead (which was not so good). The scheduler quickly
learned not to trust anything the big egos said: they all said every
piece of work was the most important and the most urgent piece of
work. Sarah realised where power now resided: not with the big
ego bosses but with the mid-level manager who was the scheduler.
She took time to get to know him; she built trust by being honest
about her priorities. She helped the scheduler by letting him put a
piece of her work back when he was faced with a genuine crisis
elsewhere. After a while, Sarah found that she could get all her
work done easily: her whisper counted with the scheduler for more
than all the shouting of the big egos. She saw where the real power
resided and used her influence to put that power at her disposal.</p>

<p>To build your own power web, you need to take stock of what you
have at the moment and compare it with what you need. Start by
noting whose help and support you need on your current assign-
ment. The shape of your web will change from assignment to
assignment: different people become important at different times.
Over a few years, it becomes clear who is consistently important
and reliable for you.The simplest starting point is to focus on your
current assignment. Map out where your key relationships lie on
the grid below. The basic trade-off is between power and trust: in
the perfect network, all the key relationships live in the north—east
quadrant of high power and high trust. Corporate life is rarely that
uimple, as we shall see.</p>

<p>One example will show the power and peril of the power web.
Follow the example and draw up your own power web.This will let
you see how strong your position is and where you need to build
further. This is a real-life example where the names have been
changed to protect the innocent and not so innocent. Chris was
the sales director of a large financial firm. He was performing well:
nulcs numbers were up even in a market that was down. Despite
this, he did not feel secure in his position. The first step was to map
his power web, which is illustrated below.</p>

<img src="p039.gif"/>
<div class="caption">The web of influence</div>

<img src="p040.gif"/>
<div class='caption'>The sales director's web of influence</div>

<p>In practice, this was a simplified version of his power web. He had
at least 40 significant relationships across the firm. He always
knew who to call to get things done. Although his network was
very wide, first impressions were deceptive: his web was danger-
ously weak.</p>

<p>The most glaring problem was with his boss: the CEO. The one
person we all need to have the greatest bond of trust with is also
the most powerful person in our work: our boss. Chris had, at best,
a mixed relationship with the boss. Occasional periods of calm
would be interrupted by violent storms of disagreement, which
could be followed by a tense sulk on both sides. Their behaviour
was childish, which is not uncommon in the executive suite. Chris
also had a violent relationship with the Marketing Director. They
were at each other’s throats. Marketing would always blame Sales
and Sales would always blame Marketing for any setbacks. The
salespeople blamed marketing for poorly designed and overpriced
products which arrived too late. Marketing saw Sales as a bunch of
overpaid, lazy, incompetent whingers. It was a divisive relationship
that invited the rest of the executive team to take sides. Most of the
rest of the team tried to stay aloof: IT, HR and Finance all claimed
to have good relations with both Marketing and Sales. At least,
that is what they said in public. Chris had no idea what they
thought in private or what they whispered to the CEO.</p>

<p>Chris’s biggest ally was the Chairman, which was good except that
the Chairman was one year away from retirement. Power was
visibly slipping away from him. Chris also thought he had good
support from his direct reports: that is a delusion that all bosses
have. They are the last to hear what their staff really think of them.
Looking more widely, there were one or two other minor
problems. The staff in the Planning department were unhelpful.
Chris dismissed them as acolytes of Marketing and thought they
were not powerful. He did not know how much access they had to
thc CEO. Because they were outside the main power structure,
they appeared to be neutral and so the CEO trusted them. Chris
seriously underestimated their importance.</p>

<p>Mapping the power web gave Chris a wake-up call. It showed that
it was not enough to rely on doing a good job selling in the market.
He needed to start managing the politics and the people much
better. As with many executives, he was not truly aware of the
politics: how he was perceived and who had influence over whom.
He needed a reality check. He was working against the organisa-
tion, not with it most of the time. This explained why he was
feeling such stress in his role.</p>

<p>At about this time, Chris got a call from a headhunter who offered
him an exciting job elsewhere. Switching employer can be very
dangerous for two reasons:</p>

<ul>
<li>The culture may be different with different rules of survival
and success. New employer and employee often clash and
eventually part ways as a result.</li>
<li>The new employee has a very weak power web: they do not
have a network of influence and trust to call on. They do not
know how to make things happen, what levers to pull. They go
from being a power broker in their old firm to being an
outsider in the new firm. They highly effective manager
suddenly appears ineffective because they cannot make things
happen, they do not understand the politics.</li>
</ul>

<p>Despite this, Chris decided to move. He would get much more
salary and much less politics, he hoped. We looked at his power
web when he arrived, and it is shown in full below:</p>

<p>It shows the challenge of all job hoppers. You start off in a very
weak position knowing very few people. In this case he had a big
sponsor in the CEO, but everyone else was fairly neutral because
they did not really know him. He took his PA with him from his
previous job, so at least she was a supporter. The good news with
starting with a blank sheet of paper is that you can recreate your
own personality: you can define yourself how you want to be
defined. But you have to start making that reputation and building
the power web very fast.</p>

<img src="p042.gif"/>
<div class='caption'>The sales director's web of influence - in his new firm</div>

<p>As you build your own power web, be wary of two common traps.</p>

<ul>
<li><i>Power</i>: it is easy to rely too much on one or two people to
sponsor us through an organisation.That makes us dependent
und weak: if our sponsor moves internally or to another firm,
we will find ourselves in trouble. And it is also easy to overlook
people who have more power than their title might imply. ]ust
because someone is not senior does not mean they lack power
or influence. They might have the ear of the CEO, or perhaps
they are a technocrat who can make life difficult for us.</li>
<li><i>Trust</i>: it is human nature to think well of ourselves and of how
we are seen by other people.\Ve are likely to overestimate how
much colleagues trust us. They are likely to be courteous and
professional to our faces.We may not hear what they really
think. Ignore what they tell you: focus on how they work with
you: do they play hard to get? Are they quick or slow to
respond to requests for help? Do they ever reach out to you to
usk or offer help and advice? How much do you know about
them and their lives, and what makes them tick?</li>
</ul>

<p>For all the people you need in your power web you should be able
to complete the checklist below. The checklist does two things.
First it checks how realistic your assessment of your power
relationships is: the less you can fill in, the more you should doubt
the strength of your relationship. Second, it provides a quick guide
to what you need to know and the sorts of actions you need to take
to build your relationship.</p>

<div class='note'>
<table>
<caption>Influence checklist</caption>
<tbody>
<tr><td>Name</td>		<td>Hot issues</td></tr>
<tr><td>Position/title</td>	<td>Red flags</td></tr>
<tr><td>Phone</td>		<td>Last contacted</td></tr>
<tr><td>Mobile</td>		<td>Next steps</td></tr>
<tr><td>Style compass (see Chapter 9)</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

<p>This is a list you should be able to complete in your head. There
are obvious risks attached to filling a notebook with this sort of
detail. Most of the list explains itself. The few items which require
some explanation are:</p>

<ul>
<li><i>Style compass:</i> The style compass is outlined in Chapter 9. The
idea is to identify the working style of the person you are
dealing with, so you can adapt to them as needed.</li>
<li><i>Hot issues:</i> These are the priorities, opportunities and risks
which are preoccupying the person. If you know what their
agenda is, you can work out how to fit in with their agenda
and how you may be able to help them.</li>
<li><i>Red flags:</i> These are the no-go areas. They can include pet
hates of people, projects or problems. Do not fight battles if
you do not need to.</li>
<li><i>Last contacted:</i> If you have not seen someone for a while, be
cautious.You probably do not have a good grip on their current
agenda, and the level of interpersonal trust may be superficial.</li>
</ul>

<p>Below is a worked example which Chris developed for his CEO.
I have added in italics some of the reality checks which this profile
raised.</p>

<div class='note'>
<ul>
<li>Name: ScottX</li>
<li>Position/title: CEO</li>
<li>Phone: xxxx xxx xxxx. PA: Maria</li>
<li>Mobile xxxxx xxxxxx</li>
<li>Style compass (see Chapter 9): Short—term outlook; driven by numbers;
defensive; high need for detail and control. <i>(Is this how the CEO behaves with
everyone, orjust with Chris; how do other people see him? Marketing seems
to get an well with CEO - why?)</i></li>
<li>Hot issues; Making quarterly earnings; meeting clients. Keen on opera,
entertaining and mixing with important and influential people. <i>(As the sales
director Chris knows plenty of influential people outside the firm; he should
leverage this. Give the CEO what he wants, flatter his ego by giving him
access to these top people.)</i></li>
<li>Red flags: Dislikes being challenged, especially in public. Regards anything
strategic as an excuse for spending more money or for explaining past failures.</li>
<li>Last contacted: Daily <i>(this is good, normally. Except in this case most of the
contacts were confrontational. They needed to have some more productive
ronversations and social interaction to build a bit more trust.)</i></li>
<li>Next steps; Continue regular meetings. <i>(These daily meetings are
destructive: they just land up arguing. Chris needs to make the relationship
more productive, less confrontational. He needs to build CEO awareness of
the market dynamics, get him to take a more strategic view. Perhaps setting
up some lunches with top clients would appeal to the CEO, would educate him
about the market and change the nature of the conversation Chris has with
the CEO.)</i></li>
</ul>
</div>

<p>The purpose of the influence checklist is not to produce yet 
another form with boxes to check. Its purpose is to clarify and
challenge your thinking about your relationships with the people
you need to influence. Chris’s case is typical:</p>

<ul>
<li>There is a mismatch between how he sees the relationship and
how the boss sees the relationship. He has let a poor
relationship cloud his judgement.</li>
<li>If there is a problem in the relationship,
Chris owns the problem. If you fall out with your boss, 
you have the problem, not the boss. </li>
<li>Chris’s relationship with the boss is clearly different from the
boss’s relationship with other team members.</li>
<li>The checklist does not provide automatic answers: it
encourages some objective, creative thinking about how to
change things. In this case, there were some simple steps he
could take to shift the nature of the relationship.</li>
</ul>

<h1>Summary</h1>

<p>Mapping your power web is no more than a stock check. It shows
what you have and what you need. It is a reality check: if you are
not sure where someone is on your web, be careful. It is human
nature to assume that we are well regarded, highly trusted. The
truth is often more mundane: while we are at the centre of our own
little worlds, we may hardly figure on the radar screen of many our
colleagues. Once we have our stock check in place, we can start
working on how to weave our web and how to build the right
alliances and partnerships, which are the focus of the next chapter.</p>

<h1 class="title">Chapter 3</h1>
<h1 class="subtitle">The
commitment
process:
building
incremental
commitment</h1>

<p>There is a huge difference between persuasion and influence.
Persuasion encourages someone to do something once.
Influence is about encouraging them to keep on doing
something and to keep on supporting you. It lasts and is based on
voluntary commitment. Influence is the gift that keeps on giving.</p>

<p>There are ways of persuading people to do something once.
Charity muggers (‘chuggers’) can relieve you of a few dollars in
the street; door-to-door salesmen persuade you to buy stuff you do
not need; store salesmen can make you 
spend more than you intended. 
<aside>Influence is the gift that keeps on giving</aside>
There are plenty of tactics for achieving such 
one-off success. It is hard work. It can
be even harder work to persuade the same person a second time:
this time they will be more cautious. In contrast, if you have
lnlluenced someone well, they will keep on returning to you time
and time again. Persuasion is a quick fix; influence is the lasting
solution.</p>

<p>Building lasting influence requires commitment, from both sides.
Here we explore how to build commitment from a cold start. The
challenge is to become the trusted partner of a stranger: they do
not know you, but you want their support. There are five elements
to the commitment process:</p>

<ul>
<li>The hook</li>
<li>Making commitment a two—way street</li>
<li>Building a tribe: belonging, meaning and recognition</li>
<li>Gaining commitment by giving control</li>
<li>Public commitment, private challenge.</li>
</ul>

<h1>The hook</h1>

<p>The hook is finding a reason why our target should meet us and
talk to us at all. Within a firm, or with established clients, this is
straightforward. Inside the firm there are established networks and
common agendas which make it relatively easy to talk: at least you
should know their email address and telephone numbers. Clients
expect calls and these often follow a regular pattern. When calling
new prospects, opening new markets or tracking down very senior
executives the hook becomes important: they need to have a
reason to reply to you and to meet you. This is perhaps the hardest
part of the engagement process. It is hard because:</p>

<ul>
<li>We may not know what the right sort of hook is for our target</li>
<li>Our target may be hard to access, behind protective secretaries</li>
<li>Few of us actually enjoy cold calling.</li>
</ul>

<p>In practice, there are a four established hooks we can reliably use:</p>

<ul>
<li>Personal introductions</li>
<li>The problem solution offer</li>
<li>The teaser</li>
<li>The request: advice and contradiction.</li>
</ul>

<p>To see how the hook works, we will look at a real example. I
wanted to start a bank. That requires at least $1 billion of capital. I
checked my personal bank account. I was at least $999 million
short of the required capital. So I needed to find an existing bank
which would act as a partner and put up $1 billion or more. That
meant I needed to talk to the CEOs of some banks. Not only did
I not have a billion dollars in spare change, my contacts book
was completely devoid of bank CEOs. I needed a hook to get
them interested.</p>

<p>The first step was to find some personal introductions. This is
where the Kevin Bacon game is helpful. Kevin Bacon is a film star.
The game proposes that no one is more than six degrees of separa-
tion away from him: the challenge is to prove it.This game was put
to the test by the BBC in 2009. They gave 40 parcels to people
around the world. The goal was to get the parcel to a scientist in
Boston, Marc Vidal, by passing the parcel on to someone they
already knew on first name terms who they thought might be
closer to the scientist. From the depths of rural Kenya and
elsewhere, it took on average six steps to reach Vidal. However, of
the 40 packages that the BBC started with, only three made it to
the final destination. That sums up the nature of targeted
networking. We may only be six steps away from the person we
want to meet, but knowing which six steps to take is very hard. We
can expect to set out in the wrong direction more than nine times
out of ten. The journey may be short, but it is not easy. Persistence
is required.</p>

<p>The Vidal experiment was not a freak result. Microsoft examined
30 billion messages on its instant messaging service, used by 180
million people, and found that the average separation between
people was 6.6 steps. The good news is that we live in a small
world: if we work at it, we can find a way through to anyone we
need to find.</p>

<p>ln practice, this meant I talked to anyone and everyone about the
new bank idea. If they liked the idea it was natural to then ask if
they knew anyone who might be interested. I did not restrict the
request to CEOs: I was happy to meet other senior bankers who
could either be part of the team, or could validate the plan, or
could take me one step closer to the right CEO. If they did not like
the idea, then I could still ask them if they knew anyone who might
advise on it. By conceding on the big request (support for the new
bank) they would return the compliment by conceding on the
small request (giving the names of some more people to talk to).
Eventually I found my way to several CEOs.</p>

<p>Even with a personal introduction, it made sense to strengthen the
hook with a problem solution offer. The problem solution offer is
the staple of much advertising: use our product to remove stains
better; our product relieves headaches faster; our computers are
more lightweight and powerful. We may dislike such advertising,
but it works. We have a problem (dirty clothes, headache, etc.) and
the advertising offers a solution. To be really effective, the pitch
should be personal. So the next step was a short letter which
looked like this:</p>

<div class='note'>
<p>Dear Mr xxxx</p>

<p>I am writing on the advice of John Jones<sup>(1)</sup> who thought it might be of
mutual benefit for us explore a new business proposal. We are<sup>(2)</sup>
developing a corporate middle market bank<sup>(3)</sup> which can fill a gap in
your portfolio between your successful SME and corporate banking
businesses<sup>(4)</sup> . We expect the bank to achieve $50 million pre—tax
profits within five years.<sup>(5)</sup></p>

<p>I represent a group of senior bankers who have been developing this
proposal and can form the start—up team to bring this idea to market
fast.<sup>(6)</sup></p>

<p>In the first instance, it will make sense for us to have an exploratory
discussion<sup>(7)</sup> to see if this idea fits with your current portfolio and
priorities. I will call your secretary<sup>(8)</sup> next week to arrange a suitable
time to meet you.<sup>(9)</sup></p>

<p>Yours truly,</p>
</div>


<p>No hook letter is perfect, and it does not need to be. It simply  
needs to work. The letter above worked as a hook. The principles 
Behind the letter also apply to a phone pitch or any other initial
contact where you need to hook someone into an initial meeting.
The main principles behind the hook in the letter are numbered
and explained below:</p>

<ol>
<li>This is the personal introduction, right up front to grab
attention. The CEO knew and respected John Jones (an alias).
The goal was to stop the secretary putting the letter in the
waste basket immediately. Whether writing or speaking, you
need to get past the first sentence. A weak first sentence leads
to switch-off.</li>
<li>Note the positive verb. Not ‘might’ or ‘hoping to’ or ‘thinking
about’. We are doing it, the only question is who with: if you
refuse, your arch—rivals may decide to be the partner instead.
In truth, we were still at the hope and wish stage. Project
confidence, not uncertainty.</li>
<li>Be very clear about what the idea is, so they see it is specific
and they understand it.</li>
<li>Make it highly personalised to this bank; be positive about
their existing portfolio, otherwise you will encourage a
defensive reaction and denial.</li>
<li>Size the prize: it is worth the CEO getting out of bed for this.
It is not something for a junior analyst to look into. It answers
the question: why should I bother?</li>
<li>Be credible: show there is support, momentum and
commitment. In truth, the senior bankers were interested but
were not going to give up their day jobs until a deal was done.
This answers the question: do I believe what is being said? In
other sorts of pitches endorsements from bosses, clients,
experts, sports stars can all work.</li>
<li>This is an easy ask: invest an hour of your time to see if you
want $50 million a year. This is the first step of incremental
commitment.</li>
<li>The CEO will not read this letter, the secretary will. Promise
to follow up. When you follow up she will have forgotten about
or ignored your letter, so be ready to resend it. Second time
round she will take it seriously because she now knows you will
follow up, so she will show the letter to the CEO and ask for
advice. The hardest task can be getting past the switchboard to
the secretary.</li>
<li>Keep it short. The more you write, the more there is for them
to disagree with or dislike.</li>
</ol>

<p>We cannot always dangle a $50 million hook in front of someone.
Sometimes we cannot even offer a solution to a problem. We need to
find another sort of hook.There are two more alternatives for us.
We can offer a teaser. We can share a little of what we have to offer
for free. If they like what they see, they can ask for a meeting and
find out more.Teasers are commonplace, for instance:</p>

<ul>
<li>Research firms offer a summary of findings for free; the full
report comes at full price</li>
<li>You can read part of a book on Amazon for free, and then
decide if you want to commit to paying for the whole book</li>
<li>Free product samples, test drives of cars are simple and honest
ways of letting people make their minds up before making a
larger commitment</li>
<li>Consulting firms offer an initial diagnostic phase at low or no
cost: they always find problems which, fortunately, they can
solve. At a price.</li>
</ul>

<p>There is an even easier, and often better, way of hooking people.
Instead of offering them something, ask for something. The one
thing people are normally happy to give is advice. By giving advice
it shows that our judgement is valued and that we have some
expertise and knowledge about the subject in question. By asking
for advice, we flatter someone.</p>

<p>There are two ways of asking for advice:</p>

<ul>
<li>Ask for advice</li>
<li>Encourage contradiction.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Ask for advice</h2>

<p>Asking for advice is as simple as it sounds. 
<aside>Asking for advice gently exploits the vanity of managers</aside>
I wanted to gain some clients
in France, so I wrote to various targets
saying I was doing research on Anglo-
French leadership: the theory was that
France has a different and potentially better leadership model than
the UK. Could I come and discuss this with them? As a teaser
which reinforced my credentials, I sent an article with the
summary of my findings on Anglo-Saxon leadership. The more
senior the French businesspeople were, the happier they were to
meet me and tell me exactly why French leadership was superior
to anything the nefarious Brits could imagine. Ask for advice,
flatter and the hook has done its job.</p>

<p>Within a firm, most senior managers are delighted to give people
the benefit of their wisdom. It costs them little and reinforces their
self-mage as respected, important and knowledgeable people.
Asking for advice gently exploits the vanity of managers, and leads
to at more productive conversation than daring to offer advice.The
curse of smart people is that they like to show they are smart.
Really smart people have the self—confidence to avoid this trap and
to appear humble.</p>

<p>If you ask for advice, ask early. Asking for advice is not just about
flattering egos. It also works because
you give your colleague a sense of
control and influence over the outcome.
<aside>People rarely oppose something which tehy feel they own and control</aside>
If they control the outcome, they own it.
People rarely oppose something which 
they feel they own and control. The later
you leave the request for advice, the less influence your colleague
has over the outcome and the less commitment they will feel
towards it.</p>

<p>For instance, I was asked to do a valuation for a bank. I did it and
thought I did good work. It was shot down in flames by the bank’s
financial department. Bank accounts are arcane: the credit crunch
suggests that not many bank executives understood their own
bank’s accounts very well. The high priests of bank finance could
shoot down an outsider’s analysis of
their position with ease. 
<aside>Never argue with babies taxi drivers or god</aside>
Even if I was
right, they could prove that I was
wrong. There is a general principle
which is never argue with babies, taxi
drivers or god: even if you are right it will do you no good. To that
list you can add actuaries, financial experts and other technical
experts of any kind: never argue with them on their favourite
technical subject.</p>

<p>Despite that bruising experience, I was asked to repeat the exercise
for another bank. This time I made no mistake. Immediately I set
up a meeting with the finance department which would review and
vet the final valuation. They waxed lyrical about tier 1 and tier 2
capital ratios. I did my best to look interested. I then checked in
with them regularly during the assignment to get more advice. By
the time we produced the final valuation, they felt it was their
valuation. They endorsed it strongly and the board accepted it
without question.</p>

<p>Ask for advice early, and keep on asking for it. Share ownership of
the final result with anyone who can either derail or endorse the
outcome.</p>

<h2>The contradiction principle</h2>

<p>Sometimes, however, there is an even better way to hook people:
encourage them to contradict you. This sounds bizarre, but works
in the same way as the advice hook. When they contradict you,
they are showing their innate wisdom, expertise and superiority.
The trick is to get them to disagree with something you disagree
with anyway. They will then vehemently make the case you wanted
to present to them. If you had presented the original case to them,
the only way they can show their superiority is by picking holes in
it. liy offering them the chance to contradict you, they make the
wise on your behalf. They have committed themselves with no
effort on your side.</p>

<p>For instance, I decided to do some work on global teams. Most
large firms have transnational teams, and most of them struggle. It
is a common problem: like my prospective clients I had no idea
what the solution was. The challenge was to engage them as
clients. If I went to the clients with the problem-solution approach
I above, I would get nowhere fast. I tried it, and it failed. First,
clients would deny they had a problem. Second, they would
challenge me for a solution which they would then shoot down.
They were not congenial conversations.</p>

<p>So it was time to turn to the contradiction principle. Here is how it
was dropped into the conversation at the right moment:</p>

<div class='note'>
'I am finding lots of my clients struggling to make global teams work...
mind you... your firm has been global so long you must have cracked
the problem by now...’
</div>

<p>This normally leads to a rolling of eyes and a look of sheer
disbelief: the client then describes in great detail just what a
nightmare it is trying to make global teams work. They make my
sales pitch for me. The hook has worked and the way is clear to
y tllncussing why global teams are so difficult and what might be
done about them. The vehement contradiction leads straight to
vehement agreement.</p>

<p>The contradiction principle can be used at any stage of the
commitment process. It is a wonderful way of getting people to
make your case for you, helping them open up and start talking
and letting them reinforce their self-image.</p>

<h1>Making commitment a two-way street</h1>

<p>Commitment is a two-way street, but is often treated as a one-way
street. The goal of the commitment process is to achieve trusted
partner status. As trusted partners you will work together as equals
towards a common goal. If you are to be equals and you are to
work together, you have to establish that mindset from the outset.
This is commonly missed. Some people demand commitment and
others give commitment without reciprocating. One-way commit-
ments are not healthy and fail to achieve influence.</p>

<p>All of this is obvious, but, as George Orwell once wrote, ‘seeing
what is in front of your nose requires constant struggle’. The goal
is obvious, but many people are unaware of it. And achieving the
goal is far harder than stating it. In many cases, commitment lands
up as a one-way street.</p>

<p>Most firms have a few sociopaths (which often includes the CEO)
who believe commitment is all one-way: they demand complete
loyalty and passion and simply do not understand that loyalty has
to be reciprocated. 
<aside>'Give and take' means giving orders and blame, while taking all the credit</aside>
For them being a
team player means ‘you accept my
orders or you are not on my team’. 
‘Give and take’ means giving orders
and blame, while taking all the credit. 
These are rarely pleasant relationships,  
except for the sociopath, who will be very happy with the way the  
world revolves around himself.</p>

<p>The more common one-way street is where we are making all the
commitment. This is where we play into the hands of the
sociopaths and the merely idle. In our desire to impress and show  
how good we are, we work harder and harder to show what we can
do. We land up in a very dysfunctional relationship. Each time we
impress, we simply raise expectations. That forces us to work
harder than ever, and we get nothing in return. We have not
created a partnership of influence; we have turned ourselves into
willing slaves. Influence is based on a partnership of mutual
commitment and obligation.</p>

<p>To create mutual commitment we have to ask for commitment
from the other side: this can feel very unnatural. Most people
dislike imposing on others unless there is a clear need. Well, there
is clear need: unless both sides make an effort for each other
there can be no partnership of trust. This is as true of marriage
partnerships as it is of business partnerships.</p>

<p>The process of mutual commitment has to start from the first
meeting: the nature of the relationship needs to be established
immediately. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to change the
nature of the relationship. In practice, this means you have to ask
for something even from the first meeting. It may only be a token
effort, but it sets the tone and the expectations going forwards: this
is a partnership, not a slave relationship. Here are some simple
things I have asked clients to do for me after first meetings:</p>

<ul>
<li>Forward a link to an article which the client mentioned</li>
<li>Clarify a small piece of data which we discussed</li>
<li>Check, and report, on the views of two colleagues.</li>
</ul>

<p>These are small tasks which are a big first step. Your partner has
made the vital transition from being passive to being active. As a
passive counterparty they do little more than act as judge and jury:
they may be entertained or even impressed by how well you
perform. But they are not helping you perform. They are specta-
tors, not partners, and you will have little influence over them. By
making them into active partners, even in a small way, you have set
the relationship onto a far more productive path.</p>

<p>As soon as your client or colleague has done some homework for
you, they have established a platform for building two-way
commitment. You are now in a position to praise and thank them
for their work. 
<aside>Giving praise is a power position: it is a positive way of passing judgement</aside>
Giving praise is a power
position: it is a positive way of passing
judgement. By giving praise you have
evened up what may have started as an
unequal relationship. You have also
created the excuse for reciprocating
with a favour of your own and for exploring more ideas. The
process of tit for tat has started: the expectation has been set that
you will both help each other. The one-way street is becoming a
two—way street, but you need to push this new psychological
contract further.</p>

<p>At an early stage, set a meeting away from the client’s home
territory. ‘Early’ means the second meeting. When the client (or
colleague) is in their office they are on their territory. You are the
visitor that they have allowed in, and they are the gracious (or not so
gracious) host. The guest-visitor relationship is not a partnership.
You need to break that mindset fast. Find an excuse to meet on your
territory or on neutral territory: in the canteen or at a restaurant.
Once they have moved out of their territory, the nature of the
relationship changes: you are now more like equals working
together. The conversation can change from what you will do for
them: it becomes what you can do together. You migrate more easily
to the partnership model where you can start to have real influence.</p>

<img src="p061.gif" alt="The company has sucked him dry of loyalty, passion and commitment Mrs Jackson: He's all yours now"/>

<h1>Building a tribe: belonging, meaning
and recognition</h1>

<p>In many firms loyalty is a one—way street: the firm demands loyalty,
passion and commitment right up to the moment where you are
right-sized, downsized, offshored, best-
shored, re—engineered, outsourced or
just plain fired. 
<aside>loyalty is a one-way street</aside>
Unrequited love and
unrequited loyalty rarely last long.
To sustain commitment, managers need to give as well as take.</p>

<p>There are two basic needs any firm or manager must fulfil to
generate voluntary commitment:</p>

<ul>
<li>Belonging and meaning: I belong to a community worth
belonging to</li>
<li>Recognition: I am recognised and valued by others for what
I do.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Belonging and meaning</h2>

<p>The tribal instinct runs deep. We all have a need to belong to a
group. The desire to belong is universal. The way we dress
proclaims our tribe: the armed forces take great care to show
which military tribe everyone belongs to with a range of carefully
differentiated uniforms. The corporate tribe has subtle dress codes
which vary by type of business, function, level and occasion. Even
rebellious teenagers invest a huge amount of time and money
acquiring an identity which allows them to belong to one of the
ever-shifting tribes of teenage fashion and music. Fortunately,
most managers do not have to go to war or become a teenager
again to understand and use the power of belonging and meaning.</p>

<p>The power of belonging sustains loyalty in even the most adverse
conditions. Sports fans are a good example. For instance, the New  
Orleans Saints were so unsuccessful in the 1980s they became
known as the ‘Ain’ts’. Their fans were mortified and some took to
wearing paper bags over their heads. They kept on supporting, but it 
was painful. Sports fans identify with their team: winning teams 
make their fans feel like winners. Losing teams make their fans feel  
like wearing paper bags over the heads to maintain their anonymity.</p>

<p>To this day, there are organisations which build extraordinary  
esprit de corps and gain extraordinary commitment from staff. 
Many of these are elites: staff at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs feel 
they are part of an elite and put in huge effort to maintain that
status. But you do not have to pay staff vast salaries to create an 
esprit de corps and a sense of belonging to something special.
Soldiers in most British regiments are poorly paid but hugely
proud of their regiment and the hundreds of years of tradition they
represent. More mundanely, Teach First is an example of how a
ucnse of belonging to something special builds esprit de corps and
extraordinary voluntary commitment.</p>

<p>Teach First has perhaps the world’s least attractive recruiting
proposition for university undergraduates: do not go and get a
huge salary at a bank or consulting company. Join us and have two
years of grief teaching in the most challenging secondary schools
in the UK. Now look at the proposition through another lens. If
you join Teach First you will:</p>

<ul>
<li>Be joining an elite</li>
<li>Be trained to be a leader of the future, in education, business
or beyond</li>
<li>Be doing something worthwhile</li>
<li>Work with other exceptional people like yourself</li>
<li>Be doing something with high social value and respect: it is
supported by prime ministers and royalty alike</li>
<li>Gain experience which all top employers value greatly: most
top recruiters sponsor and support Teach First.</li>
</ul>

<p>Viewed through this lens,Teach First is highly attractive. Each year
5-10 per cent of Oxford and Cambridge final year undergraduates
apply to get onto the programme each year. The messages which
'lbuch First uses are the same that any manager can use to create a
sense of belonging:</p>

<ul>
<li>We are doing something special and worthwhile</li>
<li>We are an elite that is capable of achieving this great mission.</li>
</ul>

<p>In most firms there are teams which clearly look, feel and act as if
they are special: they have fierce loyalty to each other and work
hard to achieve their goals. It might be a skunkworks developing a
new product, or the creative team that develops brilliant
advertising, or the IT group which does great things with
technology. The two tricks to building this special sense of
belonging are:</p>

<ul>
<li>Show that the team is doing something special and worthwhile</li>
<li>Tell the team that they are a special group.</li>
</ul>

<p>Once people have this sense of belonging their commitment is
voluntary and they become self-policing. They perform not
because the boss tells them to. They perform because they do not
want to let their colleagues down, and they do not want to let
themselves down. Peer group pressure is far more intense than
boss pressure. Boss pressure is about compliance; peer group
pressure is about commitment.</p>

<p>When people have a sense of belonging and meaning, even
mundane work becomes meaningful. There is a well—known story
of a king going to a building site in the medieval era. He asked the
first worker, who looked sullen and unhappy, what he was doing. ‘I
am getting cold shifting lumps of earth around’ came the reply.
The king asked a second person the same question. ‘Building a
building, can’t you see?’ came the second reply. The king asked a
third worker the same question. This worker seemed full of energy
and enthusiasm and was working twice as hard as the others. The
worker replied with enthusiasm: ‘I am serving God and building a
temple to Him so that future generations can worship him. This is
my monument.' Shifting lumps of earth has little meaning;
building a cathedral has great meaning. The same work can be
made either meaningless or meaningful. Make work meaningful
and commitment rises.</p>

<p><i>Recognition</i> is a tool which is at the disposal of all influencers. As we
look back at the people who have influenced us positively, they are
likely to be teachers, parents or even colleagues and bosses who
recognised our talents and forgave our very minor defects. We
repond well to recognition. Very few 
people think that they are over-
recognised for their talents and contri-
hutionz most of us think we are greatly
under—recognised and undervalued. 
That is a wonderful opportunity for an 
influencer. It allows an influencer to fill a void in someone’s life
and to stand out from other people who do not give
enough recognition.</p>

<p>Recognition is an art form: it can be done poorly or well. Done
poorly, it is insincere and sounds insincere. One-minute managers
who throw around condescending and generic compliments
quickly lose credibility. Good praise is specific, personal and
detailed. For instance, if someone helps you:</p>

<ul>
<li>explain why the action was useful to you</li>
<li>explain what was useful about it: what it achieved.</li>
</ul>

<p>Private recognition is a start: public recognition is even better. To
we how influential this can be, we need to observe Francis in
action. He is a genius, which means he is smart enough not to
show off about how clever he is. If he showed off, he would simply
annoy everyone else. Whenever there is a tricky discussion, he stays
quiet. He lets all the other brilliant and opinionated people in the
room say their piece and argue each other to a standstill. When
stalemate has been reached, he will finally speak up and offer to
summarise the discussion to date. In the course of his summary he
carefully recalls the brilliant insight or contribution of each person
around the table: even if they only said one smart thing which he
agreed with, he will bring that point back on the table. As Francis
makes his summary, you can see each person around the table puff
up their chest with pride. They have just been recognised in public
for their contribution and insight. By the time Francis has finished
his summary, everyone is supporting his summary 100 per cent:
no one is going to argue against what they have said. Naturally,
Francis’s summary is selective, and it just happens to be a
statement of what he wanted at the start of the meeting. But he
never has to argue for his position, By giving everyone public
recognition he has built their commitment to his idea.</p>

<p>There are plenty of other ways of giving public recognition, even to
people who may not be your supporters. Again, we turn to Francis
to understand his devious ways of building commitment. Francis
wanted to build support for a new market initiative. It was a
political nightmare which cut across organisation boundaries and
vested interests. After a while I noticed that Francis was producing
a trickle of progress updates. In each update he mentioned
prominently the magnificent contribution of one or two people
who had provided some analysis, insight or support. He was even
thanking his opponents. The trick was that he would find one
positive amid all the negatives and play that up (while being
careful to recognise that they had also identified plenty of other
questions to work on). Such public praise helps Francis in
three ways:</p>

<ul>
<li>It focuses debate on agreements, not disagreements</li>
<li>It creates an emotional debt to Francis from the people being
praised</li>
<li>It creates the impression of a bandwagon which is starting
to roll.</li>
</ul>

<p>As ever, Francis got his way not through the brilliance of his logic,
but through the brilliance of his process. He was building
voluntary commitment through recognition and praise. He was
converting opponents into allies, which made winning the logical
case very simple.</p>

<p>The skill of praising the one positive amidst a sea of negatives is the
art of the nice save, which was perfected by P&amp;G. We would be
presented with wild, creative, brilliant and utterly useless advertising
ideas by our agencies. If we criticised it, the fragile but supersized
egos of the creative team would throw a tantrum. So instead we
used the nice save. We would identify the one or two positive things
uhout the idea (like they bothered to mention our brand in between
the shots of line-dancing hippos in sunglasses). We would get them
to work up the good aspects. This would make them more open to
sidelining and eventually dropping the hippos. Always look for the
positives, give praise and recognition: people become less defensive
und more open to change once they feel their extraordinary talents
und effort have been properly recognised.</p>

<p>Recognition need not be devious. It can also be simple and direct.
John Timpson owns a chain of 400 shoe repair shops which carry
his name. Cobbling is not glamorous work. Many of the shops are
little more than dark holes in a wall. The key to it is not great
cohbling. The key is great customer service. The problem is that
cohblers relate to soles more than to souls: they deal with shoes
butter than they deal with people. Timpson could not regulate
great customer service at 400 remote locations. He had to build
commitment to it from all the staff. For Timpson, the commitment
comes from very public recognition of 
the right behaviours. 
<aside>criticism delivers control, praise delivers commitment</aside>
He drives around
the country with a trunk full of rewards 
and his goal is to give praise 10 times 
as much as he criticises: criticism
delivers control, praise delivers commitment. He needs commit-
ment because a control and compliance culture does not deliver
great customer service. The power of recognition, reinforced with
annual awards, newsletters and other public forms of recognition,
drive voluntary commitment and the desired service levels.</p>

<h2>Gaining commitment by giving control</h2>

<p>Management control is seen to be good: managers who are not in
control are not doing a good job. From this simple starting point, a
whole host of evils emerge. 
<aside>staff prefer to be trusted rather than controlled</aside>
Many managers think that control means
reporting, measuring, monitoring,
assessing and praising or rebuking.
This is control, but it is alienating 
because staff prefer to be trusted rather than controlled. The
growth of technology means that the level of reporting and control
today is beyond the wildest dreams of the greatest control freak of
years gone by. In the days of pen, paper
and the steam train reporting had to be
less frequent and less intense. 
<aside>Modern management speak talks empowerment but practices control</aside>
Modern management speak talks empower-
ment but practises control: we live in
an age of distrust.</p>

<p>There is an alternative to heavy management control: self-control
and control through peer pressure. These forms of control are
voluntary and lead to a commitment culture, not a compliance
culture. At a basic level, most people want to stay in control of
their lives and their jobs. If we are being controlled by someone
else we tend to resent it.</p>

<p>Good influencers use the concept of self-control to induce high
commitment and high performance. It is control by letting go, at
least to some extent.</p>

<p>The power of control through self—control was very clear in a car
factory where I was doing some filming for television. The factory
had undergone a TQM revolution: its cars rose from near the
bottom of the ]D Power reliability ratings to near the top. There
are many elements to TQM (total quality management) which
experts will wax lyrical about. Elements of TQM can include:
measurement; designing quality in; six—sigma quality; consistency
of process; eliminating errors; and not waiting to inspect and fix
errors at the end of the process. But on the production line, the
revolution was about the people and the nature of control.</p>

<p>Frank had worked at the plant for 30 years. He remembered the
bad old days. Supervisors supervised, inspectors inspected and
workers were treated as dumb and unreliable machines that had to
he monitored closely. It was a compliance culture which encour-
aged warfare between workers and management: no wonder
product quality sucked. With TQM the locus of power shifted.
Suddenly, Frank and his colleagues on the line were responsible
lor quality. At every workstation there was a wall of graphs which
showed how they were performing. The data was not the private
information of supervisors and inspectors: they had been largely
eliminated. This was the public data of each work group. Frank
proudly showed me all the data: it was his chance to show how well
the team was doing. There was rivalry with other work groups to
see who could do best: no one wanted to be the team that was
letting the rest of their colleagues down.</p>

<p>With the shift of power and control, Frank and his colleagues saw
themselves differently. They were no longer the victims of callous
and useless management. They had become champions of quality
and production: they were in control of their own destiny. By
moving from a compliance to a commitment culture the plant
saved itself.</p>

<p>Frank’s story is not an exception. In Chicago, an old detergents plant
was in trouble. Production for a couple of products was being shifted
elsewhere in the group. Another product was being developed by the
group, but if the factory wanted it, then they had to bid for it against
other factories in the same group. With an old factory and old—style
labour relations they looked doomed. Management and workers
would not even agree on the length of work breaks, let alone changing
working practices enough to win the bid. So management made a
radical decision. They decided to leave the factory for six weeks and
let the workers figure out if and how they should bid. Six weeks later,
the workers had transformed their own working practices and put in a
winning bid.They had also redefined the job of management who had
to negotiate their way back into the plant. When management
controlled the plant, workers had no ownership or commitment.
When it was their plant and their problem, they became zealous
advocates of best working practices.</p>

<p>The unglamorous world of making pumps in Brazil is not an
obvious place to start looking for a management revolution. But
Richard Semler, who runs Semco, has become a folk hero for
managing by letting go. He claims not to have made a decision in 12
years: the workers make all the decisions: pay, conditions, hiring
managers. And it all started with the canteen. As in many firms,
everyone liked to whine about the canteen. This annoyed Semler so
much that he told the workers they could run the canteen. The
complaints stopped and the canteen improved. From that early
start, Semler discovered the power of giving control away.</p>

<p>Voluntary commitment is not just about money, as the evidence of
the car plant workers, sports fans or any number of voluntary
organisations demonstrates. We have to look beyond money if we
want to build lasting commitment. This is just as well for most
influencers, since we are not normally in a position to bribe
colleagues or clients.</p>

<p>Giving control is like delegation. You can delegate away control;
you cannot delegate away responsibility. But you change the
nature of your role. 
<aside>you can delegate away control; you cannot delegate away responsibility</aside>
You no longer add 
value by ordering, controlling, 
measuring and assessing. You add  
value by supporting and coaching,  
clearing political logjams, securing  
resources and managing other  
stakeholders such as top management. In other words, you create  
a new role where you add real value to the team, instead of simply
living another layer of bureaucracy. Delegating control does not
nlcslroy management: it enhances the role of management.</p>

<h1>Public commitment, private challenge</h1>

<p>Imagine a firm where they have a thorough induction process.
liirst, there is the normal health and safety briefing. Then all the
men are taken down to the post room. There, they have to undress.
One by one they are led to a blood—stained bench where an evil-
looking person gets out a large knife and circumcises them in front
of all the other new employees. If anyone cries out in pain, they
fail. They are all left there overnight to let their wounds heel. Those
who pass have their bodies painted and they then spend the next
30 days going round the office wearing nothing but their body
paint. Everyone can plainly see they have passed the circumcision
test. After a few more tests, those who pass get to pick a girl from
the office. This is a firm which might not recruit many people, but
those who joined up would be pretty deeply committed.</p>

<p>This firm is called the Dogon. The Dogon are members of a
truditional society that live in the barren scrub of sub-Saharan
Muli. The local blacksmith does the circumcising on a blood
strained rock. The surrounding rocks are covered in murals: one
shows a long snake which will eat anyone who fails the test. Other
murals represent different families, and yet more retell the secrets
and legends of the Dogon to which the young men will be
lmroduced. The Dogon are not alone in having elaborate rites of
passage. Other brutal rites can be found in most traditional
societies from Africa to Australia and the South Pacific. Slightly
less brutal initiation rites and passing-out ceremonies are common
lh the armed forces and even fraternities and sororities on campus.</p>

<p>In each society, belonging is not just nice to have: it is essential to
survival. To be cast out from such a society means death.
Belonging makes it worthwhile for aspiring members of the tribe
to go through such unpleasant rites. Equally, the public commit-
ment reinforces the sense of belonging. Public commitment and
belonging reinforce each other.</p>

<p>Public commitments are powerful commitments: they offer no
going back. For instance, I once made the mistake of deciding to
run a marathon. I trained, and then realised it was all too much
like hard work and I did not have the time. I dropped the idea.
Then I made the same mistake again, with a twist. This time I told
four colleagues that I would run. They laughed and told everyone
else: when challenged, I confirmed I was going to run. Suddenly, I
was committed. There was no going back and no excuses. Letting
myself down is not great: letting everyone else down is far worse.
So I trained and ran and completed it. And I will never make the
same mistake a third time.</p>

<p>The principle of public commitment runs both ways. It can be
positive or negative. Once a colleague has taken a position in
public, they find it very hard to unwind that position. They will go
through more or less any intellectual hoops to justify what they
have said or done. The need to self-justify came through clearly
with a focus group of owners of outsized off-road vehicles in
London. There is not much need for off-road driving in the city.
When asked about the environmental aspects of driving such a car
in the city, the mood turned ugly. The responses were:</p>

<ul>
<li>A car with a family in it is far better than all the buses which
never have anyone in them</li>
<li>Old Land Rovers have the same wheelbase as a new Mini</li>
<li>We only drive 6000 miles a year, which is far more responsible
than people who drive 40,000 miles a year in a smaller car</li>
<li>At least we don’t fly so much</li>
<li>Electric cars are even worse because of battery disposal and all
the power station emissions for powering the batteries</li>
<li>People are just envious of us</li>
<li>It’s a free society, isn’t it?</li>
</ul>

<p>There is not much logic in any of the answers, but there is a plenty
of self-justification. Once people have taken a position, they
defend it vigorously. For the influencer, this has two implications:</p>

<ul>
<li>Manage conflict in private: do not let anyone take a public
stance against your interests</li>
<li>Publicise agreements and commitments quickly and widely.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Manage conflict in private</h2>

<p>Managing conflict in private is a basic requirement of influence.
This is especially important where you have a new idea which you
wimt to promote. If you raise your idea in a meeting, say goodbye
to your idea. Meetings are designed to  
kill ideas and to discourage anyone else
from daring to have ideas. In the words 
of one French cabinet minister: 
'meetings are a wonderful opportunity 
in destroy the plans of other 
ministries.' The last time I made the 
mistake of having an idea in a meeting, I found myself at the wrong
end of a shooting gallery. The bullets all came in the form of
helpful questions:</p>

<p>'How much will it cost? Is it in your budget? Whose budget is it?
Who will work on it, is anyone available? Have you done a risk
assessment? Have you talked this through with
IIR/Finance/IT/Ops/]apan/my great-aunt’s parrot? We’ve never
done this before, so how is it possible? We did it before and it
doesn’t work, does it? Where’s the business case?’</p>

<p>This is the normal reaction to new ideas in meetings. The easiest
way to prove you are smart is to ask smart questions and identify
the main risks; this has the benefit of protecting the firm against
risk. It also kills the idea and removes the need to take any further
action. Conversely, encouraging ideas is dangerous and may lead
to more work.</p>

<p>Unless you know you have support, keep critical discussions
private. The dividing line between a private and public meeting is
two people. As soon as there is a third person the meeting is
essentially public and each person is taking a position: the discus-
sion becomes a negotiation, In private, people can be more open,
more honest and more flexible. If they disagree with you, you can
still go back to them another time to address their concerns and
find a way forward. Once they have raised doubts in public, they
will keep on reinforcing their position. The need for self—justifica-
tion will overwhelm the need for logic.</p>

<p>There are some basic principles for managing these private
disagreements:</p>

<ul>
<li>Listen</li>
<li>Find agreements not disagreements</li>
<li>Focus on interests, not positions</li>
<li>Size the prize</li>
<li>Focus on facts not opinions.</li>
</ul>

<p>These principles are covered in detail in the following chapters.
The common theme behind these principles is that good
influencers do not just win an argument: they win an ally. The goal
is not to beat your opponent into submission with the brilliance of
your analysis. The goal is to find a win—win outcome which both
sides like.</p>

<h2>Publicise agreements</h2>

<p>When you have agreement, make it public. This is where meetings
are useful. Meetings should never be used to make a decision: give
people a choice and they may make the wrong decision. 
<aside>Meetings should never be used to make a decision: give people a choice and they may make the wrong decision</aside>
Meetings should only be used to confirm in
public the decisions which have been 
reached in private. This public confir- 
minion of private deals is vital: it gives 
reassurance to each individual that
they are not alone in giving support to  
your idea. No one wants to be the first 
to jump. But with the right choreog-
raphy, you can persuade everyone to jump at the same time. The
meeting is where they jump.</p>

<p>The ‘right choreography’ is about building confidence and
consensus. The Japanese describe this process as ‘nemawashi’. It
takcs time but is highly effective. Working for a Japanese bank in
Tokyo and an American bank in New York showed the power of
the process. In Japan, months passed before we finally came to a
decision. When we got to the formal decision-making meeting, the
decision had already been made. We were simply confirming all
the consensus which had been reached in private. Implementing
the decision was rapid, smooth and effective.</p>

<p>In New York, we had to meet an urgent deadline and presented our
recommendations as soon as we had done the analysis, but
without any ‘nemawashi’. A riot erupted in the meeting. The
decision was pushed through anyway. For months afterwards, the
decision was being sabotaged, rival plans were being promoted,
power barons were doing their own things. It was a coruscating
whirl of activity and initiative. Huge talent and effort was
expended in going precisely nowhere. The Japanese tortoise was
much faster than the American hare.</p>

<p>The process of building confidence is a search for agreement. The
agreement process is incremental. You are managing a series of
persuasive conversations (Chapter 12) in parallel. At each stage of
the conversation, you are trying to find areas of agreement which
allow you to build consensus and confidence.</p>

<p>For instance, one large telecoms company told us that they had a
very high-performance culture: it was the secret of their success.
We suspected that they had a low—performance culture which was
supported by the legacy of a legal monopoly over fixed-line
telecoms. The legacy was wearing out and they needed to change
the culture. There was little point in arguing about their opinion.
So we gathered the following facts:</p>

<ul>
<li>Employees were 27 times more likely to die in service than
to be fired for poor performance: this was not because all
their employees were getting killed, but because no one was
getting fired</li>
<li>92 per cent of staff were rated as average or above average,
which is mathematically impossible</li>
<li>IBM fires the weakest 10 per cent of its managers every year.</li>
</ul>

<p>We refused any discussion about the performance culture. All we
did for the first few weeks was to validate the findings. We asked
the managers to confirm that the facts were correct. When they
gave us confirmation, we published the facts and the confirmation.
As the deluge of data became overwhelming the claims about
being a high—performance organisation simply disappeared. We
focused on areas of agreement (facts, not opinions) and publicised
the partial agreements: incrementally, we were building commit-
ment and momentum.</p>

<h1>Summary</h1>

<p>Away from the dramatic speeches by CEOs and gurus about
excellence, passion and commitment, the daily life of managers is
a hard grind. It can be like swimming through treacle. Dealing
with politics, opposition and conflict; making alliances, trying to
make a difference while trying to keep day-to-day operations
in order.</p>

<p>The commitment process gives a clue as to why management is
mach hard work.The commitment process takes time and effort. At
any one moment a manager can have a dozen commitment
runvcrsations on the go with different colleagues: each conversa-
tion will happen intermittently over days and weeks. Keeping track
ul' cuch conversation and orchestrating them so that they all reach
thc right conclusion at the right time is a fine art and an
exhausting sport.</p>

<p>The commitment process may be hard work, but it is a worthwhile
investment. Once you have created mutual commitment, you have
a platform for success.You will have allies on whom you can rely.
In the short term it is possible to persuade and bully people into
agreement. Influencers have more ambition than persuaders.
Influencers want willing and lasting commitment, whereas
persuaders will settle for temporary compliance and acceptance.
The commitment process separates out influencers from
persuaders.</p>

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